I am looking for ways to organize NetworkManager (NM) system-connection files.

We have two use cases. With the normal use case we have about a half dozen connections. With another use case we have about two dozen infrequently used connections, all unique to that work flow. With the second use case we do not use any of the normal connections.

We prefer not to clutter our normal list of connections with these additional two dozen that are used infrequently.

A simple nm-applet submenu would be a great way to distinguish the two connection lists. NM/nm-applet automatically creates a submenu for VPN connections. I am guessing that is hard-coded.

I tried creating a submenu under /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections but nm-applet does not display the connection.

I am not seeing a way for NM/nm-applet to support submenus in the connection list.

I could create an /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections-infrequent folder to store the infrequently used connections. Then use a kludge script to 1) stop NM, 2) temporarily rename the two system-connection folders, and 3) start NM. Throw something in the boot process to ensure the normal system-connections folder is always selected.

Any other ideas?

Thanks again.

The kludge sounds good. Nobody is proud of NM, but everyone (except me!) uses it for some strange reason. I keep hoping it will go away, or get good - like Selinux, Pulseaudio, cups, EFI, etc. Mind you, I'm slowly easing myself into the present millenium.

Making the pertinent directory a symlink sounds the easiest way to go, as you'd only have to change what that link pointed at. The kludge could use an 'if...then...else' to check what the state was, then stop nm, switch, and restart. I have a kludge script to put hdmi audio out on my audio jack, for translators at streaming events. They can stream video, grab the English au8dio in earphones, do a simultaneous translation, and speak Portuguese or the like into a microphone, while the video goes via hdmi.